Renewed Consolidation Called For Singapore Stock Market

(RTTNews) - The Singapore stock market on Tuesday ended the two-day slide in which it had fallen almost 20 points or 0.6 percent. The Straits Times Index now rests just above the 3,275-point plateau although it figures to head south again on Wednesday.

The global forecast for the Asian markets is mixed with little change ahead of key economic events that are likely to affect the outlook for interest rates. The European and U.S. markets were mixed and flat and the Asian bourses figure to follow suit.

The STI finished sharply higher on Tuesday following gains from the financial shares, property stocks and industrial issues.

For the day, the index climbed 36.30 points or 1.12 percent to finish at 3,276.36 after trading between 3,232.38 and 3,277.01. Volume was 1.1 billion shares worth 1.27 billion Singapore dollars. There were 339 gainers and 203 decliners.

Among the actives, Ascendas REIT added 0.36 percent, while CapitaLand Integrated Commercial Trust gained 0.97 percent, CapitaLand Investment soared 2.51 percent, City Developments spiked 1.98 percent, Comfort DelGro rose 0.81 percent, DBS Group improved 1.45 percent, Emperador added 1.04 percent, Genting Singapore increased 0.57 percent, Hongkong Land gathered 1.27 percent, Keppel Corp was up 0.40 percent, Mapletree Pan Asia Commercial Trust surged 2.98 percent, Mapletree Industrial Trust advanced 1.35 percent, Mapletree Logistics Trust accelerated 1.90 percent, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation collected 0.49 percent, SATS perked 0.75 percent, SembCorp Industries jumped 1.89 percent, SingTel increased 1.11 percent, United Overseas Bank strengthened 1.65 percent, Wilmar International was up 0.74 percent, Yangzijiang Financial climbed 1.47 percent, Yangzijiang Shipbuilding slumped 1.42 percent and Singapore Technologies Engineering and Thai Beverage were unchanged.

The lead from Wall Street suggests a mild negative bias as the major averages opened higher, tumbled mid-session but then bounced back to finish mixed and little changed.

The Dow added 3.07 points or 0.01 percent to finish at 33,852.53, while the NASDAQ lost 65.72 points or 0.59 percent to end at 10,983.78 and the S&P 500 dipped 6.31 points or 0.16 percent to close at 3,957.63.

The choppy trading on Wall Street came amid lingering uncertainty about the situation in China following widespread protests over the country's Covid restrictions.

Traders may also have been reluctant to make significant moves ahead of remarks from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell later today, which may offer additional clues about the outlook for interest rates. Jobless data follows on Friday.

In economic news, the Conference Board released a report showing a modest decrease in U.S. consumer confidence in November.

Crude oil futures settled higher Tuesday, extending gains from the previous session on hopes that OPEC may trim production to support prices later this week. West Texas Intermediate Crude oil futures for January ended higher by $$0.96 or 1.2 percent at $78.20 a barrel.